Labour has withdrawn its support for Azhar Ali, its candidate for this month’s Rochdale byelection, in the wake of controversial comments he made about the 7 October attacks on Israel.

In line with electoral law, Labour cannot replace Ali with another candidate because the deadline passed on 2 February. He will stand as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper, but if elected he will not hold the party whip and will sit as an independent MP.

Labour sources said that campaigners in Rochdale were told to stop leafleting and social media activity on Ali’s behalf at 5.30pm on Monday – an instruction that came from party HQ.

  • @guriinii
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    210 months ago

    No evidence? It’s publicly available. See my comment.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      310 months ago

      No evidence?

      From the article:

      Azhar Ali, who suggested Israel had allowed 7 October attack to happen

      You can’t be suggesting that the is evidence for this? I don’t think you are and we might have our wires crossed, but just to check.

      • @guriinii
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        010 months ago

        Yes. That’s literally what happened.